Talk:Shampoo

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[edit] etymology?

Wouldn't it make sense to include some history of the word, or would that be redundant because it's already in the Wiktionary? 70.5.3.238 (talk) 04:52, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] urban legend/toxicity

There are no references to claims that Sodium dodecyl sulfate is carcinogenic. Though the SDS page there is reference to the urban legend. I think that clean up crews have been overzealous in removing claims of this sort that are not well supported. People come to wikipedia for perspective, not just lists of links to what is elsewhere. Explaining the chemistry/toxicity issues or linking to where they are explained with links that someone who doesn't already know the connection... that is what this article needs to do better. The social context is erased when all we write about are scientific facts about materials instead of also including ideas that require more difficult referencing. Sorry to sound so negative here but I am seeing this issue in too many articles these days.Rusl 23:26, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Is there anyone who knows about the basic chemical differences about shampoos that claim to be a volumizer, clarifying, dry vs oily, and about a million other types? In a side note, some shampoos have hair dyes and toners in them to subtly maintain or change the color of your hair. For example, some people use purple based shampoos to make their hair less brassy and yellow (many blondes use this to make the hair white). This is rumored to be where the term blue haired lady comes from when older women leave this in their hair to long to tone they're gray. Shouldn't this be written somewhere with a description?

Short answer: There is no real difference between those shampoos. Longer answer: Marketing claims and chemistry can be found at the sites of companies that sell shampoo ingredients. Try:(http://www.ispcorp.com/) Even longer answer: A book could be written on this subject. In fact, some have been written. The unfortunate problem is that much of this information isn't published anywhere on the web. Since it's not published, it can't be cited. If it can't be cited, it has no place in Wikipedia. Sorry, but that's the catch-22 here.Bobzchemist 16:30, 11 January 2007 (UTC) Medium Answer, the basic ingredients are typically the same, however, the ratios and blends do vary within bands so that various characteristics are optimised. If you follow the ispcorp link, you'll find additives for volumising for instance. Unfortunately the bible of the cosmetics industry, Harry's Cosmetology isn't to my knowledge, online (Prehaps google books has excerpts), so you may need to get to a large library to read it Valueaddedwater (talk) 22:51, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

htf do youmake homemade shampoo. i wanna know cause i'm kinda poor. thanks to anyone who can help.


I, too, would like to know, if anyone has the answer. I think it's made from lye and fat or something though.

All shompoos are made from Synthetic Detergents, these days. Short Answer: Use bath soap. Longer answer: It is not possible to save money by making your own. You will pay more for the ingredients than you will for the finished shampoo. Buy the cheapest generic stuff you can find, it will work 90% as good as the most expensive shampoo on the market.Bobzchemist 20:29, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

There are brands of shampoo that are extremely inexpensive. Go to a dollar store. I do not believe you can purchase the necessary chemicals to make your own shampoo. If you have ever washed your hair with soap you'll understand why - they have to use cleaners that do not strip out the necessary oils. When this happens, your scalp produces oil faster, your hair becomes much more succeptible to breakage, splitting and fraying, and it is almost instantly unmanageable. The detergents used in shampoo have to balance things out, rather than stripping them out. I suppose an alternative is to go with dreads. JMPZ 05:17, 24 April 2006 (UTC) Using bar soap to wash hair is possible, but not desirable, mainly because the pH of an average soap bar made from saponification of fats/oils with lye (Sodium Hydroxide) is quite high at around pH 10 or therabouts. This causes the scales on the hair shaft to fluff out giving a higher risk of felting or interdigitation. If you rinse afterwards with something acidic like lemon juice or vinegar, you may well get away with it, but TBH with cheap own label shampoo available its not really worth it. Use a cheap shampoo or shower gel instead 20:31, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

  • Moved this question to the talkback (obiously) "Does anybody know when the word "shampoo" came into the English language?"

First sentence is: "A shampoo is a traditional Indian and Persian body massage given after pouring warm water over the body and rubbing it with extracts from herbs. It can be used in conjunction with a conditioner for optimal results, but it is not a necessity."

Conditioners are relevant to Indian and Persian body massage? Otherwise we're getting confused here.

"Shampoo is also available in solid form, allowing it to be rubbed onto the hair. This has the advantage of having the shampoo easily carried, but also has the disadvantage of working less efficiently on longer hair."

What is "having the shampoo easily carried" intended to mean? That the shampoo can easily be carried when travelling? That it can easily be spread in the hair? --Brolin Empey 23:55, 2005 August 2 (UTC)

I believe that the "solid" shampoo subcategory is actually a subtle advertisement. I was only able to find one company manufacturing it. I'm calling it non-notable, and I will delete it unless someone objects and can show a citation from more than one company. Bobzchemist 21:17, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Shampoos, Conditioners, and Pro-vitamins

A lot of hair care products are adversted as containing 'Pro-Vitamins'. My understanding was that a pro-vitamin was something the body (usually the liver) could convert into a vitamin when required. For example, betacarotene would be considered 'pro-vitamin A.

Is there any benefit in adding 'pro-vitamins' to hair care products, or is this just impressive-sounding marketing hype? Are there any good refernces on this subject? --PJF (talk) 04:23, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

  • Check out the entry Panthenol, which is a pro-vitamin of B5. Consider that hair is dead cells, so there is no bioactivity for any vitamin additive. However, some vitamins, like Panthenol and Vitamin E, do have a cosmetic effect. I think the understood benefit (or at least the most widely marketed benefit) is that it plumps the hair shaft by as much as 10%.

Panthenol does have an ability to bind electrostatically to the hair shaft to give a conditioning effect that can be percieved by the user in the same way that quaternery based conditioners (The same as used in fabric softener)do. If anyone says that they are "Feeding the hair" this is guff, as the hair shaft is dead (Only the bulb under the skin is actually alive). Rememeber that this is a cosmetic product, so the only effects you will get are, by definition, cosmetic Valueaddedwater 20:35, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Waterless Shampoos

Does anyone have any information about waterless shampoos? Like how they work and their main ingedients that make it so.

So-called "Waterless" or rinse-free shampoos are simply much more dilute versions of "regular" shampoos. They work exactly the same way as regular shampoos do.Bobzchemist 06:07, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Another version of the waterless shampoo is an absorbent powder such as Talc or cornstarch, which is rubbed through to remove excess grease and oil. They're not popular as they are messy, don't always brush out clean, and are of limited effectiveness. Valueaddedwater 20:38, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup

I marked this article for cleanup because it was generally terrible. There was much POV ranting about natural shampoos without the harmful detergents... you know, the ones that actually clean your hair in the first place :

so I rewrote a bit, commented out some crap, and am working on trying to add some more information

[edit] Big clean up underway

I cleaned up a lot of the ranting. The previous guy had a problem with the shampoo industry, I think this article should cover:

  • History
  • How It Works (generally)
  • The Chemistry
  • Natural Shampoos
  • Two-in-One Shampoo and Conditioner
  • The Shampoo Industry (have a section critical of industry?)
  • Brands
  • References

Feel free to clean up my work, this is not my expertise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eddie tejeda (talk • contribs)

[edit] synthetic detergent

I'm curious as to the source of saying the detergents/surfactants used in modern shampoo are considered to be synthetic? How do you define whether its a natural or synthetic surfactant? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Darconas (talk • contribs)

All detergents are synthetic, but they are called synthetic to differentiate them from soaps, which are made from animal or vegetable fat.Bobzchemist 06:10, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Two-in-One Shampoos

I agree with the unsigned poster above: the chemistry behind two-in-one shampoos (of which there seem to be more than one kind, see [1], [2]) should be covered here in detail. -- Karada 14:58, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] No Vandalism

Isn't kind of strange that so far there has been no vandalism to the page 64.12.116.5


No I'm pretty Sure that's a good thing.

[edit] Purpose

I remember learning that the purpose of shampoo was to clean the scalp, not hair. This is the reason why you are supposed to massage the shampoo into your head, to clean all the dead skin cells. 71.250.19.117 13:21, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dimethicone

I removed the Dimethicone section from the Ingredients heading, as Dimethicone is used in conditioners and there is a separate article about that. Carax 04:51, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] When was modern shampoo invented?

I was watching the Channel 4/PBS documentary "1900 House" DVD and they claim that shampoo as we know it was invented in 1950 (!) -- which seems incredibly late. As this Wiki entry states, shaved soap and hot water passed for hair washing for quite some time. The particpants in 1900 House made shampoo according to period recipes but complained it was nothing like what we know as shampoo (as it left quite a bit of residue and left the hair in terrible condition). (They later tried another period recipe containing only egg yolks and lemon! yuck!)

Does anyone have any history on modern shampoo? Certainly movie stars in the 1940s would not have used dissolved soap shavings, would they? Modern shampoo would have to be linked with the creation of sodium lauryl sulfate. Navstar 18:40, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Synthetic detergents started to be commercially available in the 1930's. So a 1940's screen star would have had the luxury, a silent movie star wouldn't have been so luckyValueaddedwater (talk) 18:59, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Protein/Animo Acid section

I agree amino acids and nucleic acis would provide very little benefit to hair. And whole protein molecules would be too large to enter the cuticle. But the section seems to want to argue about *permanently* bonding new amino acids to hair, which of course isn't going to happen in dead cells. But I haven't seen any conditioner or shampoo marketed as permanently improving hair. Adding hydrolized protein bits that are cationically charged will help temporarily improve the look of damaged or fine fine (until its washed again). --68.103.154.140 17:04, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] an opposing view

is it really good at all to use? has the details ... I would love to see this content cited, as well as rebutted in the content of this article.

I spotted 3 basic chemical errors in the first paragraph of that link. Its not, shall we say, wikipedia standard as regards a) accuracy, or b) POV Valueaddedwater (talk) 19:06, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] natural vs. organic

can somebody put in a little snippet about natural vs. organic? to the best of my knowledge, organic is a term used by the FDA and hence, there is no such thing as an organic shampoo (or at least it is in washington state)

i dont want to do it at the risk of sounding like a 12 year old's run on sentence, but from working in a salon, i can give you this link that very breifly covers it [3]

ps, thanks to whoever deleted the whole section about different brands. considering theres thousands upon thousands, that wouldve been an effort in vain...

Hazzayoungn 10:05, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Requires more points of view.

I think this article lacks criticism. There are alot of shampoos which actually is hazardous to either/both the environment or/and humans in either small or big ways.

PS: This line sounds like commercial to me.

Feel free to write a section on the controversey. Personally, I feel that the above statement has no basis in fact. There are many people that make this claim - they all turn out to be selling something.Bobzchemist 03:58, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

The biodegradeability issue hasn't been relevant since the 60's when the use of phosphate based, non biodegradeable detergents was banned, due to the outflow of sewage works being a wall of foam. Microbial preservation of liquid detergent products is always an issue, so once it has been used by the consumer, and hits the sewers, its bug food Valueaddedwater 20:43, 30 September 2007 (UTC)


Shampoo formulations seek to maximize the following qualities:

  • Easy rinsing
  • Good finish after washing hair
  • Minimal skin/eye irritation
  • No damage to hair
  • Feels thick and/or creamy
  • Smells good
  • Low toxicity
  • Good biodegradability
  • slightly acidic pH, since a basic environment weakens the hair by breaking the disulfide bonds in hair keratin.
Many shampoos are pearlescent. This effect is achieved by addition of tiny flakes of suitable materials, eg. glycol distearate (a wax).

62.16.202.221 01:19, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Waterless Shampoos

…like those used for pets. What exactly are these? —Nahum Reduta 12:00, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia

This section seems pretty useless.

Shamoo triva - now I've heard everything! Think outside the box 14:05, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Soap versis Shampoo

Hi:

I think the article could also address shampoo as a class of soap. My understanding is that shampoo is a soap with a different vehicle, but it's basically a soap. Ie washing your hair with a bar of soap is no different.

(Signed a man with a beard whose idiot friend gave him very expensive shaving soap for his birthday -- WTF?)

Both shampoo and a true soap are detergents, but thats where the similarity ends.

Using soap to shave with is not the same as washing hair with it, as it doesn't matter if the hair above the skin surface is damaged before shaving, as you're cutting it off anyway.

If you are into the yul brinner look, I suppose washing your scalp with a bar of soap would be similar Valueaddedwater 20:47, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Haha you are ridicioulas. It is diffirent. --78.149.175.76 (talk) 17:14, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] general

I deleted the "surfactants" section, which was entirely redundant with the internally linked article. Some wise guy had added "phattionic" to the list, heh, heh. 216.179.1.227 06:09, 25 October 2007 (UTC)robgood@bestweb.net

[edit] Response to a previous question...

Homemade shampoos are better for your hair and much cheaper.

http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/go/index.php/389/why-you-should-go-no-poo/

That's actually better to use seeing as it won't damage your hair at all, unlike shampoo. Disastrous Catastrophe 12:18, 30 October 2007 (UTC)DisasCatas